Avoid these mistakes, for a winning CV

Finding a new job is challenging at best and fear inducing at it’s worse, but often the barriers to your new career are simple mistakes on your CV. Here at Focus Search & Selection, we review hundreds of CV’s a week searching for the best candidates for our clients.

We often see avoidable mistakes on candidates’ CV’s. Have a look at some of the most common ones below:

Spelling, Grammar and Typos

Before submitting your CV, it’s imperative that you proof-read (this may seem like the obvious thing to do, but many fail to do so). As my colleague Ross O’Loughlin says, “One of the most frustrating errors made by potential candidates is when they put that they have ‘great attention to detail’ and then proceed to spell detail or attention wrong.”

Another area that seems to cause job seekers issues, is the use of past and present tense. Often a CV will have many uses of both past and present tenses, which may seem like a tiny error but can show a lack of proof-reading skills. Some more advice from Paul Stewart, our Property Finance expert at Focus, who advises job seekers to consider their current employment status when deciding what tense to use in their CV. “If you are not currently employed then you may want to use past-tense.” While there is a spell and grammar checker built into word processing software, it is always helpful to have someone go over your CV.

Unrelated Job Titles

One of his biggest reasons I overlook a CV, is that a job seeker has not taken the time to customise their CV for the job they are applying for (or, including job titles that do not match the job they are applying for). You should align your CV to the job you are applying for. If it doesn’t show you have the basic requirements, it’s hard to decide if you are a good fit or not. If you don’t have all the requirements that’s fine, but you definitely want to make sure it aligns with the job description.

I would also advise to look at the job’s required responsibility and skills section. Think about things on your CV or work experience that are similar and highlight those. If you don’t have the exact job title of the job you are applying to on your CV, add a slash to the title and include a second title that aligns with the job title you are applying for. It should help describe what other things you did outside of your title role.

Not Following Instructions

While in the rush to submit as many CV’s as possible, candidates often make the mistake of not following submission instructions. If a company requests for you to submit a cover letter, references, or other specific instructions, then do so. Your application can be automatically excluded for not following the specific instructions.

Too Much Style Not Enough Information

Unless you are applying for a creative role that requires a creative CV it is unnecessary to add graphics, colours or alternate layouts. This takes away valuable space on the page for your skills, while this looks good, it does not add any more value to your application. Our candidate researchers also caution against attaching a picture or making your CV too creatively formatted. “I once had a candidate send me a CV that was formatted like a fancy menu for an administrative role. It did not have enough information about them, and they sacrificed substance over style,” says Ross.

There is also another risk with submitting a highly creative CV: the applicant tracking system (ATS) may upload your CV and change the formatting or duplicate positions or details. Recruiters process hundreds of CV’s a day and cannot always tell what a system error is and what is a human error.

Not Enough Details

Often candidates are trying to keep CV’s to a limit of one to two pages and cut back on the details of their previous positions. This is no longer relevant in an age where applications are now digital. Paul Stewart says, “it is difficult when a candidates CV don’t have enough information, when they only include the title and company. As a recruiter, I don’t always have the time to play detective.” This can cause even the best candidates to miss out on opportunities.

A CV needs to have a skills section, or something in a candidate’s CV noting their familiarity with different systems or skill sets, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Suite. Make sure to study the required skills and expand on your experience in bullet points under your CV. It is helpful to explain short-term assignments such as temp positions, relocation, or layoffs. This can be listed below the position in a bullet point or in a short explanation under the job title. Recruiters may view a CV with many jobs as flighty, so providing details to give those career moves context can help you get a call back.

A point to remember, a recruitment company is also assessing your honesty with your experience! Inflating the amount of time, you spent at a position or embellishing your responsibilities can come back to bite you during a reference check.

You Can Do This!

At Focus Search & Selection we believe in finding the best candidates and connecting them to the best opportunities. We want our candidates to have the best chance of success and we will often coach them on how to improve their CV. Remember that almost everyone has been in the position trying to find the right job. Working with a recruitment professional can help you connect to amazing companies.

The bonus of working with a recruiter is having an expert in your corner to help you navigate the job search and application process. Whether you are looking for a fresh start or are just looking for some with market knowledge, we want to talk to you! I encourage you to look at my LinkedIn page to find your next opportunity. Let me help you make your next job a great one!